viewpoints

Recurrent training can be thought of as a 'continuous
education' for airline pilots. Even though you've been
properly rated and qualified by a company check airman
and the Federal Aviation Administration that you're safe
to operate an aircraft carrying passengers, you are required
to undergo "retraining" twice per year. Luckily,
we've earned the approval at my airline to undergo "single
visit" training in which we only have to undergo
training once per year but at a longer duration.

At my airline, instead of using the word “recurrent
training”, in spirit of former military pilots love
of acronyms, we use the term “Continuing Qualification”
or “CQ Training”.

Annual CQ is sort of a bittersweet event. Remember that
anxiety you experienced before a test, a checkride or
any type of comprehensive evaluation? Well, that's going
to be an annual occurrence for the rest of your flying
career. Once a year, stacks of flash cards get dusted
off, system ground school notes, operating manuals and
various study materials get taken from the top shelf in
your closet and strewn across the living room.

The “sweet” part of CQ is that you’ll
usually run into pilots that you haven’t seen for
years and are able to share a pre-class breakfast with
them and catch up on old times. We’ve got 10,000
pilots but I usually see a few people that I know on a
daily basis.

I always find it amazing when I dust off my notes for
review that I was ever able to remember such a vast amount
of data, figures and systems.

Strangely, the hardest part for me is finding five days
of “business casual” to wear during training.

The first part of recurrent training at my airline is
"Fleet Common". Fleet Common materials cover
items like our flight operations manual, meteorology,
operations specifications (the rules that govern aircraft
operation) and the "hot topic" of the year.
The hot topic this year is security.

Whoodathunk?

Our training department developed a highly interactive
CD-ROM that you run on your computer at your convenience
that includes multimedia presentations, study guides,
and a "Fleet Common Exam". After completion,
you're given a password of sorts that you enter on a sign
in sheet on the first day of recurrent training to be
given credit for completing the material. It sure beats
an extra day of class trying to stay awake during a presentation
about Category IIIb ILS autoland minimums in the classroom
when you can review and be tested on the information in
front of the television with a cold beverage of your choice
at your own convenience.

Day One:
Since I'm based in Dallas and we operate both the MD-88
and the MD-90, our first day is an MD-90 specific ground
school. Believe it or not, most of our ground instructors
in Atlanta at the training center have never seen an MD-90,
primarily because we use them for mountain and west coast
flying thus never operating in Atlanta at all. Usually,
the instructors keep the class fast, efficient and usually
end up asking us questions like, "So does it really
fly a lot different than the MD-88?" I think our
ground instructors are some of the best in the world.
You can ask them the most obscure questions about the
most obscure system and they're able to clearly explain
and answer your question. Quite a few of our systems instructors
are former mechanics because they've got first hand operational
experience on how certain systems work and that brings
a wealth of knowledge to learning.

Believe it or not, most of the systems diagrams you find
in aircraft manuals are a super-simplified “flow
chart” of how the system works and is usually within
the ballpark of the actual schematic.

Day Two:
Day two starts with another "hot topic" discussion
with pilots from various fleets. It's very common to be
in a large classroom with everyone from 737 first officers
all the way up to 777 international captains on their
very last cycle through training. This year, the discussion
covered "FOQA".

FOQA (I'm not even sure what it stands for) is a system
that we use that monitors various flight telemetry like
airspeed, aircraft configuration and g-loading which is
beamed live to a computer that "de-identifies"
the data and stores it. The information is "de-identified"
for everyone's protection so there's no need to worry
about the negative ramifications of "Hey, this particular
captain was 20 knots over final approach speed at this
particular airport".

It’s almost like what you’ll see in mission
control in NASA but it’s all handled by a computer,
and there’s no one there actively monitoring it.

The information is stored and a computer program gathers
trend information. So that way, if a certain aircraft
in the fleet has a common problem of exceeding flap limit
speeds, we can then look at the situations in which this
is occurring and adjust our training procedures to correct
this.

One thing that a lot of airlines, including my own do,
is use real time situations from various airlines and
incorporate them into simulator training. So if there
is a common problem or occurrence within a particular
aircraft model, chances are it’s going to show up
as a scenario or ‘discussion topic’ during
simulator training.

After the "hot topic" discussion, we join the
flight attendants for an hour to work on CRM procedures.
This year, once again, we were working together on passenger
disturbance/security threat issues and how to take appropriate
actions to counteract the event. Basically, we’re
given “events” in which we discuss how we’d
respond to it.

After that, we return to the pilots-only classroom and
discuss various operational issues related to company
and FAA procedures.

In the afternoon, we go to fleet specific ground school
on the MD-88. We'll review most of the major systems of
the aircraft, do the "emergency exit" door refresher
and practice using fire extinguishers and such. At the
end of the class, we're given a 50 question written test
correctable to 100%.

Day Three:
Day three is pure simulator training. The captain and
I will do about an hour of pre-simulator briefings with
a simulator instructor discussing various "first
look" maneuvers. This year, we were briefed about
various types of windshear event escape maneuvers, spent
time talking about the American Airbus accident in New
York City and how to quickly and safely recover from an
in-flight "upset" (temporarily out of control
aircraft). We'll also do some self-guided learning working
with various aircraft performance scenarios, paperwork
and various line operational material. In short, scenarios
in which you're issued your final paperwork and operations
adds another 700 lbs of cargo to particular cargo bins
and the legality of doing such. Or how to adjust your
operations in areas of suspected windshear.

This year, the first day of simulator training was a
demonstration of how excessive amounts of rudder during
"upset" recovery is destabilizing and can lead
to a situation which can lead to a structural failure.
We also practiced severe windshear events on takeoff and
events while stabilized on an ILS. And of course, we practiced
the L1011 windshear accident profile that happened in
DFW. That scenario is a severe challenge, even with the
new predictive/reactive windshear guidance driving the
flight director.

The captain and I went on to perform landings with flap
malfunctions, electrical system failures, severe engine
damage, simulated evacuation procedures and visual approaches.

My captain and I both performed NDB approaches for the
first time since last year. I'm suprised (although proud)
that either of us were able to pass on our first attempt!

Day Four:
Day four began with another brief and a new instructor.
we do"AQP" training where we train to proficiency
-- basically, if you perform a maneuver correctly the
first attempt, at the instructors discretion, he's able
to certify your performance as passing and you don't have
to execute the maneuver again. Unfortunately, there are
certain maneuvers that you still must re-demonstrate on
the final day of training.

The scenario with the bird strike was that we're on
takeoff in Boston and at rotation, we ran into a flock
of Canadian geese at rotation. We kept the aircraft climbing
and while we were running the checklist to secure the
engine and work with Boston departure to get a vector
for an ILS approach at 1800RVR, the flight attendant (portrayed
by our instructor) calls us gasping from smoke inhalation.
So now we're dealing with an engine failure, smoke in
the cabin and an engine fire. My captain and I divided
duties where I flew the aircraft, coordinated with the
flight attendants and worked on getting the aircraft on
the ground quickly. My captain worked the smoke procedure,
got my engine secured and we re-briefed one another on
our status before we started the approach.

The thing to remember that whenever you review procedures
like smoke and fire, that you're going to have an oxygen
mask on and smoke goggles. Not only is it a challenge
to read checklists with smoke goggles on, it's an extreme
challenge to communicate through the ICS with oxygen masks
on. All in cockpit communications, flight attendant communication
and COM1 comes through the overhead cockpit speakers so
it can, and does, lead to communication challenges.

We landed; crash/fire/rescue including the tower stated
that we had a pretty nasty fire on the left nacelle so
we executed the evacuation. Time is of the essence in
an evacuation so we use “STOP/CONFIGURE/SHUTDOWN/EVACUATE”
but we have time to run the short evacuation checklist
and get out of the aircraft.

Day Five:
This is checkride day. We go through a two-hour oral exam
discussing various aircraft systems, operational procedures
and aircraft limitations.

Speaking of aircraft limitations, get accustomed to memorizing
them. The FAA will not give you any sympathy whatsoever
and gives a strong admonition to our check airmen to respect
their philosophy.

Luckily, we were able to perform satisfactorily in the
simulator on Day four and were able to receive credit
for all of our maneuvers. So our checkride consisted of
me performing a 1600 RVR instrument takeoff and engine
failure at V1, a single-engine ILS, a two-engine ILS (glideslope
out) approach and a single-engine missed approach. The
captain executed an engine failure before V1, a raw data
VOR approach, missed approach, a single-engine approach,
and a landing with a flap malfunction.

Also, we practiced “rejected landings” which
are different than missed approach procedures. Primarily
because you’re already past your missed approach
point and you have to remain in “protected airspace”.

Whew! But we're not done yet!

Next, we're going to be tested on "LOE". "LOE"
stands for "Line Operations Evaluation" where
we'll literally act as if we've arrived at the aircraft
at the departure gate, do all of the preflight checks,
push back, start the engines and conduct ourselves exactly
how we'd do on a normal line flight from point-a to point-b.

There is most likely going to be an in-flight emergency
during this evaluation, but you have no idea what it’s
going to be. By not briefing you on what’s coming,
the simulator instructor is able to see how you’d
handle a surprise emergency in reality, rather than a
“canned” response to an event which you knew
you could expect.

The captain and I do all of the standard everyday stuff,
but in this year’s evaluation, I am the flying pilot
and the captain is the non-flying pilot. We're given paperwork
and check the weather. The weather at our departure airport
is indicates low visibility, which requires a takeoff
alternate. We contact flight control, receive an alternate
with fuel burn and weather. We depart for Atlanta and
while we're receiving vectors to join the SID (departure),
one of our engines explodes resulting in severe damage
to our right engine. My captain starts working the situation
in the checklist and I handle communications with ATC
(air traffic control) and try to find somewhere nearby
we can land. KDAL is below Cat-1 ILS minimums as well
as KAFW. On a single-engine in the MD-90, our lowest minimums
are "category 1" which means we need at least
1800 RVR (1800 feet of visibility) to conduct a single-engine
approach.

An important, but highly critical task is splitting tasks
during an emergency. The non-flying pilot can’t
possibly work an emergency procedure, handle communications
with ATC, talk with the flight attendants and then set
your “Mode Control Panel”. This stresses the
importance of the preflight brief and making sure the
crew knows how we’re going to handle any in-flight
events.

Since I’m flying pilot, I’ll get the autopilot
on when safe, work with air traffic control and work on
the divert. The captain handles the checklist and works
with the flight attendants this time.

In the checklist, there are certain highly important
items that we both need to clearly confirm before executing.
Items like pulling fire handles, fuel control levers/switches
and such require that both pilots independently confirm
if it’s the appropriate switch, double check and
then methodically perform. If neglect that, you can easily
go from an engine-out emergency, to a “dead stick”
no-engine crash landing in a flash.

While my captain is working the severe damage/engine
failure procedure, I started working with air traffic
control to get a vector and get clearance to divert to
Oklahoma City. Usually in the simulator when you do single-engine
operations, you normally return to the departure airport.
So I have to "clean up" the aircraft by getting
the flaps up and using the FMS to give me an engine-out
enroute climb speed. The captain gets the engine secured,
and then I debriefed him on any changes to the aircraft
configuration, including the current weather at our diversionary
airport.

I keep control of the radios and he briefs the flight
attendants through the interphone, let's them know what
the situation is and then addresses the passengers about
the situation, what we're doing and what to expect upon
landing in Oklahoma City.

After that, I briefed the captain on the OKC ILS 36L
approach, review that it’s going to be a flaps 28
landing, that I must disengage the autopilot before glideslope
capture and about the generous amount of rudder trim.

Acronyms come in very handy when you’re working
emergencies. The acronym I use is “FAST” for
engine-out landings:

F

Flaps 28 only. Flaps 11 on a missed
approach and remind the non-flying pilot that the
call is going to be “TOGA power, flaps 11”
instead of “TOGA power, flaps 15” with
two-engine missed approaches

A

Autopilot off before glideslope
capture

S

Straight out missed approach. It
makes doing a single-engine go around a lot easier
when you’re climbing straight ahead instead
of turning, joining a radial, etc.

T

Trim. When I’m reducing power
on the operating engine during the flare to landing,
start removing my rudder trim to help maintain directional
control of the aircraft.

We execute a single-engine ILS to minimums and land straight
ahead on the runway. Crash/Fire/Rescue meets us on the
runway, does an inspection of the aircraft and confirms
that there is no external fire. I hand control of the
aircraft back over to the captain and I coordinate an
arrival gate with yoperations and we taxi into the gate,
shut the engines down and complete a shutdown checklist.

We go back upstairs to the debriefing room and the simulator
instructor certifies that we've successfully passed CQ
training, debriefs us on various aspects of our performance
(or lack thereof) and we're consider "safe"
for another year of flying the MD-88/90.